Privacy policy

Alder Hey Children’s Charity is committed to protecting your privacy. This policy sets out how we will use and protect any information you share when you visit our website.

What this privacy and cookie policy covers

Alder Hey Children’s Charity (AHCC) is committed to protecting your personal information, whether you are a donor, volunteer, shopper or campaigner. This policy explains how the AHCC and all of its subsidiaries collects and uses the personal information you provide to us and that we collect, whether online, via phone, email, in letters or in any other correspondence.

We ensure that we use your information in accordance with all applicable laws concerning data protection of personal information. This policy explains:

What information the AHCC may collect about you;

How we will use that information;

Whether we disclose your details to anyone else;

Your choices regarding the information you provide to us; and

How we use cookies to provide services to you or to improve your use of our website.

If you have any queries about this privacy and cookies policy please contact Head of Charity Operations, Alder Hey Children’s Charity, Eaton Road, Liverpool, L12 2AP or email [email protected]erheycharity.org.

By using our website or any of our services, or providing us with any personal data, you agree to your personal data being used and disclosed in the manner set out in this policy.

Who we are

We are a registered charity which raises money to make Alder Hey Children’s Hospital a truly world-class, patient-friendly hospital. Through providing funds for life-saving medical equipment, pioneering research and world-class facilities for patients and families, we make a crucial difference to the 270,000 patients and families who visit Alder Hey every year.

Our registered charity number is 1160661 in England and Wales. We are also registered as a company in England and Wales under registration number 09389239.

Alder Hey Promotions Limited a registered company in England and Wales: number 08019977, is a wholly owned subsidiary of AHCC which trades on its behalf. Within the context of this policy ‘we’ means both the charity and its subsidiaries.

Information collection

We collect information in the following ways:

Information you give us. For example, when you engage with our social media or message boards, make a donation to us, register for an event or otherwise provide us with personal information. When you register, we’ll ask for personal information, like your name, email address and telephone number to store with your account.

Information we get from your use of our website and services. We collect information about the services you use and how you use them, like when you watch a video on YouTube, visit our website or view and interact with our ads and content.

We may also receive information about you from third parties. This can include information such as your name, postal address, email address, phone number, your geographic location (for mobile devices), credit/debit card details and whether you are a tax payer so that we can claim Gift Aid. We, like all companies, are able to confirm what browser you are using, IP address and computer operating systems that are being used and this information may be used to improve the services we offer.

Wherever possible we use aggregated or anonymous information which does not identify individual visitors to our website. By submitting your details you enable us (and where applicable any suppliers we may use) to raise funds and to provide you with the goods, services, information, activities or online content you select and any other related services AHCC may provide.

We do not usually collect ‘sensitive personal data’ about our supporters unless there is a clear reason for doing so, such as participation in a marathon or similar fundraising event or where we need this information to ensure that we provide appropriate facilities or support to enable you to participate in an event.

Website users

AHCC website use cookies to help our website work well and to track information about how people are using them. More information on cookies can be found further down the page.

In addition, if you submit your information via our website then the following will also apply:

AHCC website collect personal information when you register with us.

The website will collect information such as your name, email address and post code.

As part of the registration process, you agree that any registration information you give to AHCC will be accurate, correct and up to date.

We collect and retain information about your transactions with us so that we can process your transactions and deal with future queries.

We use cookies to allow us to store limited information on an individual’s computer to either track them through tracking cookies or to allow people to have automatic logons as an example. We use this information to provide you with a good experience when browsing our website and to improve the functionality of our site.

Your debit and credit card information

If you use your credit or debit card to donate to us, buy something or pay for a registration online or over the phone, we will ensure that this is done securely and in accordance with the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard. Find out more information about PCI DSS standards.

We do not store your credit or debit card details at all, following the completion of your transaction. All card details and validation codes are securely destroyed once the payment or donation has been processed. Only staff authorised and trained to process payments will be able to see your card details.

If we receive an email containing any credit or debit card details, it will be immediately deleted, no payment will be taken and you will be notified about this. All purchases or donations should be completed through the donation page or online shop on our website or via our fundraising team by calling 0151 252 5716.

Job applicants

If you apply to work at the AHCC, we will only use the information you give us to process your application and to monitor recruitment statistics. If we want to disclose information to someone outside the AHCC, for example, if we need a reference, we will make sure we tell you beforehand, unless we are required to disclose this information by law.

If you are unsuccessful in your job application, we may hold your personal information after we’ve finished recruiting for the post you applied for. We keep de-personalised statistical information about applicants to develop our recruitment processes however no individual applicant would be identifiable from this information. If you commence employment with the AHCC, your data will be processed in accordance with your employment contract and other applicable policies.

How we may use your information

We may use your information for a number of purposes including the following:

To provide you with the services, products or information you have requested or which we feel may interest you where you have consented to being contacted;

To process donations we may receive from you;

To fundraise in accordance with our internal policies and procedures;

To provide you with information about our work or our activities that you have agreed to receive;

To fulfil sales contracts you have entered into with us;

To invite you to participate in interactive features on our website when you choose to do so;

For administration purposes (for example we may contact you regarding a donation you have made or the event you have registered for);

For internal record keeping, including the management of any feedback or complaints;

To use IP addresses to identify your approximate location, to block disruptive use, to record website traffic or to personalise the way our information is presented to you;

To analyse and improve the services offered on our sites to make it as user-friendly as possible;

To show you adverts online and on social media about our campaigns, projects etc we think they may be interested in;

We may analyse the personal information we collect about you and add publicly available information to create a profile of your interests, preferences and level of potential donations so that we can contact you in the most appropriate way and with the most relevant information;

Where it is required or authorised by law; and

We may assess your personal information for the purposes of credit risk reduction or fraud prevention.

If you enter your contact details into one of our online forms, we may use this information to contact you, even if you don’t click ‘submit’ on the form. We will do this to see if we can help with any problems you might be experiencing with the form or with our website, or to see if you would like to continue the action you were taking on the form.

Marketing materials

We may contact you for marketing purposes by email or text message if you have agreed to be contacted in this manner. By subscribing to AHCC emails or opting in to email communication from AHCC, you grant us the right to use the email for both email marketing purposes and advertisement targeting. We may also send you service communications via email or text, for example where you place an order for goods or services on our website, or you have made a donation by text.

If you have provided us with your postal address or telephone number we may send you direct mail or telephone you about our work unless you have told us that you would prefer not to receive such information.

It is your choice as to whether you want to receive information about our work, how we raise funds and the ways you can get involved. If you do not want us to use your personal information in these ways please tick the relevant box situated on the form on which we collect your data.

You may opt-out of our marketing emails at any time by clicking the ‘unsubscribe’ link in at the end of our marketing emails.

You can also change any of your contact preferences at any time (including telling us that you don’t want us to contact you for marketing purposes by telephone, or by post) by contacting our office on 0151 252 5716 or [email protected].

We will not use your information for marketing purposes if you have indicated that you do not wish to be contacted for such purposes. However, we will retain your details on a suppression list to help ensure that we do not continue to contact you.

Information sharing and disclosure

The AHCC may share your personal information with other AHCC entities, trading subsidiaries, suppliers or service providers only to provide the products or services you've requested from our site(s) where, for example, we use a separate company to deliver goods to you.

AHCC may share your information with our data processors. This would include our trusted partners that work with us in connection with our charitable purposes, and other entities that act as fundraisers for AHCC, sell AHCC products or provide AHCC information and marketing (subject to your communication preferences and our internal policies and procedures). We require these third parties to comply strictly with our instructions and data protection laws and we will make sure that appropriate controls are in place. We enter into contracts with all of our data processors and regularly monitor their activities to ensure they are complying with AHCC policies and procedures.

Rest assured, we will never share, sell or swap your details with any third parties for the purposes of their own marketing or the monetising of your data.

We may disclose your personal information to third parties if we are under a duty to disclose your personal data in order to comply with any legal obligation (for example to government bodies and law enforcement agencies), or in order to enforce or apply our rights (including in relation to our website or other applicable terms and conditions) or to protect the AHCC, for example in cases of suspected fraud or defamation.

Under 18s

We are committed to protecting the privacy of the young people that engage with us.

Our fundraising events request specific information about the age of participants. If you are under 18 and would like to get involved, please ensure that you have consent from a parent or guardian before giving us your personal information. When we collect data about a child or young person aged under 18 we will make it very clear as to the reasons for collecting this data and how it will be used.

Vulnerable Supporters Policy

Inappropriate website content

If you post or send any content that we believe to be inappropriate, offensive or in breach of any laws, such as defamatory content on our forums or social media pages, we may use your personal information to inform relevant third parties such as your internet provider or law enforcement agencies.

Where we may store your information

For financial and technical reasons we may, on occasion need to use the services of a supplier outside the European Economic Area (EEA), however we will ensure that your information is held in compliance with the European data protection regulations. By submitting your personal information you agree to this transfer, storing or processing at a location outside the EEA. We will take all steps reasonably necessary to ensure that your data us kept secure and in accordance with this privacy policy.

Keeping your records

We keep records for as long as required to operate the service in accordance with legal requirements and tax and accounting rules. Where your information is no longer required, we will ensure it is disposed of in a secure manner.

Cookies

Cookies make the interaction between users and websites faster and easier, and help to improve websites. Without cookies, a web site could not remember a user's preferences.

Websites use cookies mainly because they save time and make the browsing experience more efficient and enjoyable.

Cookies also enable websites to monitor their users' web surfing habits and profile them for marketing purposes.

What cookies do Alder Hey Children’s Charity use?

We have classified our cookies according to the categories proposed by the International Chamber of Commerce.

None of the cookies used on our website gather personal information about you.

Strictly Necessary Cookies These cookies are essential for the operation of our website. They:

Check if a user has closed the Cookie Notification bar at the top of the site.

Below are the names of the strictly necessary cookies used by Datalaw.

Cookie name

Description

user_accepted_cookies

Alder Hey Children’s Charity session cookie

Performance Cookies These cookies collect information about how our website is used. The purpose of these cookies is to help us improve our website, and to report website usage for reasons such as rights reporting to music collecting societies. They:

Check anomalies and as a back-up in respect of Google Analytics, which is tracking software supported by Google. This software is used to validate Comscore data, our official tracking tool.

Below are the names of the performance cookies used by Datalaw:

Cookie name

Description

_utma, _utmb, _utmc, _utmz

The cookies that we use can be broken into four categories:

Cookies which are necessary to run the website

Some of our site cookies are essential to run the website and without the acceptance or use of these cookies the website or elements of the website will not work. These include, but are not limited to:

Adding items to a shopping basket

Remembering items in a shopping basket if you leave the website

Cookies which are optional

All other cookies are optional and the removal of these cookies may decrease the usability or performance of our website. Such optional cookies include, but are not limited to:

Remembering that you are logged in across all of our website

Your optional settings

Tracking usage of a website

Cookies which ensure value for money

To ensure that we are getting best value for money from our advertisements we may use cookies that track how many people click on the advertisements and subsequent actions which is known as a “click through”.

Cookies which are from trusted third parties

We utilise the technology of third parties on a regular basis to ensure that we are using up to date systems which are managed by the best companies to provide us with the information that we need. This in turn means that there will be a number of third party cookies from our trusted suppliers used on our website. Each company is responsible for the cookies that they place onto your device and have separate policy documents to highlight their use.

Our list of trusted third parties who may deploy a cookie to your device, with a link to their cookie details is below:

What will happen if you disable some or all of the cookies that AHCC uses?

If you opt to disable some or all cookies, we are unable to guarantee that our website will operate.

How do I manage my cookie settings?

Internet browsers (such as but not limited to Internet Explorer, Google Chrome, Firefox, Opera or Safari) will allow some control over most cookies through their settings. You will need to refer to the operating manual or review the settings of your browser software to identify what cookies are on your device and how to remove them.

Find out more about cookies and how to manage them. Some third parties may allow you to manage their cookies independently. Please refer to the list of third party providers above and confirm their respective policy pages for further information.

Acceptance of cookie use

By continuing to use our website you will have been deemed to have agreed to our use of cookies subject to any preferences you may have indicated to us or any overriding browser settings you may have.

Tracking

We use multiple first and third party technologies such as pixel tags and web beacons to track and improve the user experience on our sites, quality of service and to monitor the effectiveness of campaigns and digital marketing activity.

We may use them to:

see what website content is popular and how people are using the site as they allow us to track users movement through our website. This type of information is amalgamated so that we can build up a picture of how the site is performing.

make sure we offer you a consistent service. For example, if we are testing new website content or we want to run a survey, we use tracking to remember what content you have seen or if you have already been asked to join the survey.

In addition, when we email you, we may place a tag (also known as ‘tracking pixel’) on the email we send out. These let us monitor performance of our emails marketing activity.

The accuracy of your information is important to us. If you would like to change your preferences or update the details we hold about you other than online, please contact our Fundraising Team on 0151 252 5716 or [email protected] or write to Alder Hey Children’s Charity, Eaton Road, Liverpool, L12 2AP.

Under the Data Protection Act 1998 you have a right to request a copy of the personal information we hold about you and to have any inaccuracies corrected. We require you to prove your identity with two pieces of approved identification. Please address requests to the Head of Charity Operation, Alder Hey Children’s Charity, Eaton Road, Liverpool, L12 2AP and we will respond within 40 days, of receipt of your written request and confirmed ID. Please provide as much information as possible about the nature of your contact with us to help us locate your records. We reserve the right to charge a fee of £10 for this process.

Changes to this privacy policy

We may update the terms of this policy at any time, so please do check it from time to time. We will notify you about significant changes in the way we treat personal information by sending a notice to the primary email address you have provided to us or by placing a prominent notice on our website. By continuing to use our website you will be deemed to have accepted such changes.

Complaints, compliments or comments

If you are unhappy with our work or something that we have done or failed to do, we want to know about it. We also welcome your views on what we do well. Your comments enable us as an organisation to learn and continuously improve our services. Please address any correspondence to the Chief Executive, Alder Hey Children’s Charity, Eaton Road, Liverpool, L12 2AP or [email protected].